Twist off's VS bottle openers

I made a batch of American Amber about 6 weeks ago. I have let the bottles sit in a dark closet for 3-4 weeks. About 30 beers were bottled in bottles that require openers (not twist offs) the other 15 were bottled in twist offs like miller lite, Yuengling, etc. I just open a few of the twist offs, they both popped upon opening and had really good carbonation. My bottle opener bottles were a little flat and didn't have much pop to them. This seems backwards!

I use both types of bottles and have noticed no difference.

Seems a little backwards to me too.

But back when i bottled all i used was twist offs and
never had a problem with them not sealing.
And to this day i don't own a bottle capper.

Is i possible one side of the closet could be warmer then the other?
like maybe near a heat vent or something.

Just a thought.

Tim

Let me get this straight, you used twist off bottles and they worked? Everyone has always said don't. Being a noob at the time I didn't question it. So it works? Used a normal capper?

My first batch I used blue moon bottles (twist offs) and they worked just fine.

Yup, best way to be sure is take a twist off bottle and fill it full of
water then place a twist off cap on it and turn the bottle up-side down.

Does it leak?
If it doesn't leak then it will seal good enough to carb and condition your beer.

Tim

Twist off cap? Are you talking about the plastic bottles? I thought you were talking about using new caps on bottles.

I am talking about bottling beer in pre-used bottles. Some of them were Sierra Nevada bottles that originally require a bottle opener to remove caps. The others were twist off bottles like miller lite, Yuengling etc. I was originally told that you can't cap Twist off bottles like miller lite/Yuengling and that you should only cap bottles that require o bottle opener so the seal properly. In my case, the twist offs had more carbonation in them that the other bottles

tom_gamer said:

Twist off cap? Are you talking about the plastic bottles? I thought you were talking about using new caps on bottles.

Click to expand...

Not plastic, Glass like Bud or Bud light if you save the caps from these bottles
they can be reused with the bottles.

The twist off caps only need to be hot water rinsed
and sanitized DO NOT BOIL THEM!
This can destroy the inner seal in the cap.

Tim

drhookmec said:

Seems a little backwards to me too.

But back when i bottled all i used was twist offs and
never had a problem with them not sealing.
And to this day i don't own a bottle capper.

Is i possible one side of the closet could be warmer then the other?
like maybe near a heat vent or something.

Just a thought.

Tim

Click to expand...

How to you cap beer without a capper?

Sounds like someone is reusing old twist off caps. Why not just buy new pry-off caps? They're only about 5 cents.

I have an old bench capper and it does a nice job of putting new caps on regular and screw off bottles. I would never recommend reusing a cap. I've drank - I mean capped hundreds of bottles, with nary a problem.

Just to make sure, you're saying you use new caps with a normal bench press capper on twist off bottles and it works fine? No leaks?

Yep, works fine.

When you added your priming sugar, did you stir it? It may just be that your twist-offs were bottled first and hit the best part of the priming sugar. You should always stir when priming (just don't stir too vigorously and aerate the beer).

The glass twist off bottles are thinner at the neck than the pry off bottles. The concern in reusing them is that the neck may crack if you crimp the caps too tight. If you have had success I'm happy for you. I will continue to use pry off bottles. That's just how I roll. I cannot honestly see how someone could reseal a twist off cap on a glass bottle without using a wing capper or a bench capper and new caps. There are also PET (plastic) bottles with plastic screw caps that can be used and reused. Just don't boil the bottle or the cap. Use a cold sanitizer such as Starsan.

SGFBeerBuzz said:

When you added your priming sugar, did you stir it? It may just be that your twist-offs were bottled first and hit the best part of the priming sugar. You should always stir when priming (just don't stir too vigorously and aerate the beer).

Click to expand...

I disagree. No stirring needed. Just boil some water, add sugar, dump it into your bottling bucket and rack beer on top. Don't need to stir, it will mix just fine.

william_shakes_beer said:

The glass twist off bottles are thinner at the neck than the pry off bottles. The concern in reusing them is that the neck may crack if you crimp the caps too tight. If you have had success I'm happy for you. I will continue to use pry off bottles. That's just how I roll. I cannot honestly see how someone could reseal a twist off cap on a glass bottle without using a wing capper or a bench capper and new caps.

Click to expand...

Also disagree with the thin glass, at least have never noticed a difference except the twist off ones have a thread. I will double check this, damn now I need to buy beer and compare.

Another myth bites the dust? Keep me posted. I don't want to sprinkle fairy dust

tom_gamer said:

I disagree. No stirring needed. Just boil some water, add sugar, dump it into your bottling bucket and rack beer on top. Don't need to stir, it will mix just fine.

Click to expand...

I disagree, sometimes. I did the swirl method and got very uneven bottles. Not all batches though. I then did the swirl method AND stirring and the bottles are much more evenly carbonated. My last batch I forgot to stir so we'll see it this batch is uneven.

kh54s10 said:

I disagree, sometimes. I did the swirl method and got very uneven bottles. Not all batches though. I then did the swirl method AND stirring and the bottles are much more evenly carbonated. My last batch I forgot to stir so we'll see it this batch is uneven.

Click to expand...

I have done 12 batches, never stirred the priming solution, just pour it cooled into the bottling bucket and rack quietly on top of it. Never had uneven carbonation issues.

william_shakes_beer said:

I have done 12 batches, never stirred the priming solution, just pour it cooled into the bottling bucket and rack quietly on top of it. Never had uneven carbonation issues.

Click to expand...

My one, minor uneven issues came from when I didn't mix the sugar with water and just pitched it dry. I say minor issue because I had one bottle blow up on me when I opened it, all the rest were fine.